Story: The Dinosaur in the Garden

  There was a dinosaur in the back garden. It lay under the shade of the old willow tree with it’s long heavy tail disappearing into the tangle of thorns at the bottom of the garden that no one ever got round to clearing away.
  At first Bobby thought it was dead. Strange enough that there was a T-rex (and he knew it was a T-rex from the book he’d got for Christmas) in the garden , stranger still for it to be dead. Then it opened one yellow eye and stared at him.
  Not at the house, not at the window where he stood. At him.
 Hard to tell with a dinosaur, but it didn’t seem to like him very much.  Maybe it was that way with everything. From the way the book told it, the T-rex was in a permanent foul mood.
  Bobby trotted downstairs to find his mother. She was watching Tv, one of her chat-shows. People with cockney accents shouted at one another. Whatever they were discussing seemed important, at least to the people on the screen.
“Mum” he said carefully. “There’s a dinosaur in the back garden.”
 She nodded and said “That’s nice dear.” Without casting a single glance in his direction. “Quite a big one” he added, hopefully. “And I think it might be hungry.”
 She gave him one of those looks. One of her looks that said “I don’t want to play your game at the moment"  and turned back to the TV. 
  Bobby shrugged his shoulders and made to go back upstairs but then he looked out of the living room window. The dinosaur was standing right outside. It was a dusty grey-green, with a pale belly and it’s teeth were big and yellow. Bobby tugged on his mother’s sleeve. This seemed something she ought to know. “It’s outside the window Mum, it’s looking in at us.Mum.”
  She shrugged off his hand and took a long drag on her cigarette. “Look, very imaginative and all that, but can you go play outside instead.” She told him at last.
  One look at the huge shape standing outside and Bobby said “I think I’d rather play upstairs.”
  Mum nodded again, till not looking at him, and said “As long as you’re quiet.”
 The dinosaur edged closer and the breath from it’s nostrils puffed against the window, leaving a smear of white.
  Closing the bedroom door Bobby risked a look out of his window. The dinosaur had moved away and was now investigating his bike, abandoned in the long grass last night. He could hear it snuffling from here.
  Abruptly it spun around, tail scything out to lash the willow’s hanging branches. It stared up at him and again he heard it sniffing the air, tasting his scent.
  He pulled the curtains closed and sat on his bed heavily, contemplating the next day. A schoolday, so he would have to leave the house.

 Monday morning came around after a long night huddled under the covers listening carefully and when his mum opened the curtains he expected her to scream in surprise. Well, you would wouldn’t you? Even an adult would be surprised.
  Nothing there. He checked for himself. No dinosaur, no sign that a dinosaur had ever been there and the living room window was perfectly clean.
  He left the house and walked to school, checking over his shoulder frequently, and spent the day looking out of the window, not sure what he hoped to see. In the end the teachers got a little upset with him and he couldn’t really blame them. And he couldn’t tell them why either.
  The walk home was a more pleasant affair. He chatted to his friends about tv and which teacher was the biggest jerk and then he was at his front door waving them goodbye. “I’m home” he cried
  There was no answer, even when he yelled again, worried this time. That was when he knew what had happened. His mother had gone outside and the dinosaur had eaten her.
  But then she walked in from the kitchen and said “hello dear” and his heart stopped pounding.

  He went into the back garden then and sat under the willow tree.

 Hot, foul breath brushed his cheek and he opened his eyes.